Selling iPhones Brings in Big Bucks for Tim Cook but Can You Make Money from Your Phone?

Apple CEO Tim Cook earned $15.7 million in 2018, a 22% annual pay increase bolstered by a $12 million cash bonus. The news comes just a week after shareholders were told that a decline in iPhone sales in China meant Apple would miss quarterly revenue estimates for the first time in 15 years. This sales slump has also seen Apple introduce a program that allows U.S. customers to trade in their older iPhones for credit.

$15.7 million is good news for Tim Cook but what about the folks who are paying $1,000+ for their shiny new devices? Is there an opportunity for them to make some money? Thanks to Studentloanhero.com here are 25 Easy Ways to Make Money Using Your Smartphone:

1. Ibotta

Before you head to the store, open the app and complete a few tasks to find offers for your favorite products and brands.

Next, head to the store and purchase items you selected in the app.

Once you’re done, take a picture of your receipt to redeem the offers you selected.

You’ll be credited with your cash back, based on the activities you completed ahead of time. Ibotta is compatible with PayPal and Venmo, and it also provides the option to claim gift cards.

Offers range from 25 cents to $1 or more. You have to prepare ahead of time, but depending on the items you purchase from your grocery list, it’s possible to get between $5 and $50 back at the store each month. Get your friends and family to sign up to earn referral bonuses.

2. Shopkick

Image credit: Shopkick

You won’t get direct cash back with Shopkick,
but you can earn points to redeem for gift cards at your favorite
retailers. Shopkick even offers Amazon gift cards. That’s a plus for
me since I do a lot of shopping on the website.

You don’t even have to actually buy anything to benefit from Shopkick. Just walking into a partner store or scanning certain items can help you earn points. According to the company, Shopkick users have earned $68.5 million in gift cards since 2009, when it was founded. You can get your share of free money by signing up and using the mobile app.

3. Receipt Hog

Snap pictures of your receipts to earn “coins” on Receipt Hog. Then, turn your coins into gift cards or cash. You can earn more by taking online surveys and completing other tasks. In the end, though, you’re probably not going to make a ton of money with this app.

The coins you earn aren’t worth a whole lot in terms of cash. A
receipt adds about ten coins to your account. You can get extra coins
for using the app and “leveling up.” I only go shopping about once a
week, though, and rarely go to more than two stores. So, I might get 20
coins per week from shopping.

You could use the app’s prize wheel and complete challenges for extra
coins. In the end, though, it takes a lot of coins to get cash:

Image credit: Receipt Hog

With this app, I could probably get between $50 and $100 per year if I
were diligent about uploading all my receipts and took advantage of
Receipt Hog’s sweepstakes and other activities to earn bonus coins.

As a long-term smartphone hustle, you’d have to combine this with
other efforts to make any decent money. But it might be worth it for a
little extra cash now and then.

4. Jobs2Shop

Ages ago, I was a mystery shopper. It required me to fill out a paper
survey and mail it in for a check. Today, mystery shopping is as easy
as downloading an app, frequenting targeted stores or restaurants, and
leaving feedback. There are other actions you can take in the Jobs2Shop app to boost your earnings before cashing out via PayPal.

How much money you make depends on the type of evaluation you do. The
main downside is that you rely on there being a demand for mystery
shopping in your area. My relatively small town doesn’t have a huge need
for it, so I don’t often get these gigs.

If you live in a bigger city and are regularly sent out to evaluate businesses, you could make up to $100 a month or more.

5. EasyShift

EasyShift
is another mystery shopping app that can help you earn money by
following a checklist. In some cases, you only need to take pictures of
products or check prices and share the information inside the app. You
can also earn money for writing reviews of certain promotions.

How much you make depends on the demand in your area and the types of
tasks you do. Just going in and taking a picture of product placement
might make you $2. You might make $20 on an assignment if you’re
required to make a purchase.

It’s a simple way to go about your business and earn a few bucks per
month. However, you probably won’t get rich with this app, especially if
you live in a sparsely populated area.

6. Paribus

Image credit: Paribus

This app is all about making sure you didn’t overpay for something you bought. Connect the app to your email account, and Paribus
will scan your recent purchases and receipts. If a retailer owes you a
refund based on price protection policies, the app sends a letter to the
seller and notifies you when the money is returned. For example, if the
price drops on a qualifying purchase, you’ll get money back.

Can you do this yourself without the app? Yes. Does it take extra time? Sure does. So you might as well have Paribus do the heavy lifting.

7. Swagbucks

One of my favorite ways to make money using my phone is Swagbucks.
I earn points, or “SB,” for shopping as usual online and by using the
mobile app. You don’t get direct cash back when converting SB, but there
are plenty of gift cards to choose from.

I net about $100 a year in Amazon gift cards by following my regular
shopping habits and doing small tasks, such as taking short surveys or
answering the daily poll question in the mobile app. Not bad for doing
what I already do, especially when combined with other loyalty and
rewards programs.

Focus groups and opinion surveys

It’s not always exciting, but filling out online surveys
can be a way to earn extra money. Not only that, but you could make
even more money if you’re part of a focus group or engage in other
activities that result in helping marketers better understand their
audiences.

8. UserTesting

For every 20-minute session you spend testing out apps, you can
receive $10. That’s right; you can make $30 an hour by trying new things
on your phone with UserTesting.

You probably won’t be able to find enough projects to replace your
full-time job, though. Chances are that you won’t be offered enough
projects to be busy for five or six hours a day. Instead, you’re more
likely to see between two and six projects a week.

It’s still a pretty good way to make a little extra money each week. I
managed to earn about $30 a week when I was using the app. They pay you
exactly one week after you complete a test.

9. uTest

The user testing platform uTest pays you based on offers. You can look for available projects, ranging from creating bug reports to creating usability testing reports. Each of these projects takes different amounts of time and payouts are based on the way the customer perceives the quality of work.

You might get paid anywhere from $3 to $50, and there are bonuses
available as well. If you have a few hours to spend each week, you could
make between $10 and $100 without too much trouble.

10. Nielsen Digital Voice

In the past, Nielsen
ratings used to put small electronic monitors (they looked a lot like
DVRs) on TVs to get an idea of what families were watching.

Now Nielsen is involved in all sorts of rating information. Join its platform, and Nielsen will track your smartphone use as part of its efforts to find out more information about how consumers use their phones to communicate with others, use apps, and even surf online.

The main downside is that the points you earn might not translate directly into cash. Instead, it translates into extra chances to win prizes. You have a chance to get cash in the monthly sweepstakes, where you’re entered to win your share of $10,000 (divided among 404 people).

It’s not a guaranteed way to make a ton of money, but it can be a way to get a little extra cash without any added effort.

Ash Exantus aka Ash Cash is one of the nation’s top personal finance experts. Dubbed as the Financial Motivator, he uses a culturally responsive approach in teaching financial literacy. He is the Head of Financial Education at BankMobile and Editor-in-Chief at Paradigm Money. The views and opinions expressed are those of Ash Cash and not the views of BankMobile and/or its affiliates.

Amazon has 30,000 Jobs they Need to Fill + How the Gig Economy is Making it Hard for Them to Fill

Amazon has more open jobs than ever before. The company is attempting to hire 30,000 permanent employees in the U.S. alone. The jobs are spread out across departments and at locations throughout the country. Filling them is an especially tall order in such a tight labor market, with unemployment hovering near a 50-year low. To get started, the tech and retail giant will hold job fairs on Sept. 17 in six cities: Arlington, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville and Seattle.

Jobs may be so abundant because of the growth of the gig economy that allows people to work where they want doing what they want. Gig economy jobs continue to grow in popularity in the U.S., accounting for at least 5% of the workforce. So how do you fully take advantage? Moneyish.com recently wrote an article titled: The secret to making $115 an hour in the gig economy

In the article they give us 10 best fields for gig workers based on pay and job availability:

The first trend you might notice is that this list is dominated by tech jobs. Gavin Graham, the special projects editor for FitSmallBusiness.com, says this is because these types of jobs lend themselves well to the gig economy and are growing fields that pay well.

So what exactly do people in the no. 1-rated artificial
intelligence-deep learning field do? “They help develop “the technology
that drives the ability of artificial intelligence to ‘learn’ and
adapt,” says Graham. “Jobs in this field include developers who code the
underlying algorithms using tools and programming languages, such as
MATLAB, Python, Java, C++, Tensorflow, etc..,” he adds.

One possible surprise on the list: Instagram marketing. It lands on
the list because job growth has been very rapid, he explains. While many
companies have worked on Facebook and Twitter marketing, their
Instagram platforms are less developed — and in need of help.

Ariana Grande sues Forever 21 for $10 million + How to Protect Yourself From Those Trying to Steal Your Identity

In a complaint filed on Monday, megastar Ariana Grande said Forever 21 and Riley Rose misappropriated her name, image, likeness, and music, including employing a “strikingly similar” looking model, in a website and social media campaign early this year.

She said this followed the breakdown of talks for a joint marketing campaign because Forever 21 would not pay enough for “a celebrity of Ms. Grande’s stature,” whose longer-term endorsements generate millions of dollars in fees.

This is a classic case of identity theft and while we can’t sue identity thieves for $10 million dollars, there are some practical ways that we could put ourselves less in risk. Here are four ways to protect yourself:

1. Change your password – I know it can be annoying
to have to change your password or remember a new one, but it is
important that you stop hackers dead in their tracks. Change your
password regularly and make sure you include a variety of symbols, so
hackers have a tough time guessing what it is.

2. Create a different username and password –
Instead of using your Facebook login for all sites, create separate
usernames and password per site. This way the breach doesn’t come from
another third party, and you can better protect your account.

3. Set up two-factor authentication – Add another
layer of protection to your account. Two-factor authentication It is a
setting in Facebook where you can choose either text message codes or a
third-party authentication as your primary security method. This way you
know when someone is trying to do something fishy with your account.

4. Delete your personal info – The next time you log
onto Facebook, take the time to delete some of the more personal
information you have shared to reduce your risk of exposure in future
attacks.

SATs Keeps its Same Scoring Model + A Scoring Model You Better Undertand

The SATs are changing course following backlash over a plan to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the exam.The original adversity score was made up of ratings for the student’s school and neighborhood environments and was intended to capture the obstacles a student might have overcome. Critics said over-eager parents could use the score to game college admissions. Instead, the College Board will use a different system in an attempt to capture a test taker’s social and economic background. For many SAT scores can make the difference in so many lives but what other score affects your well-being?

Many people are
aware of the important role the credit rating plays in their lives.
However, understanding what goes into a credit score (the credit score
breakdown) might present some difficulty. There are several different
methods of scoring, but most lenders and banks rely on the FICO method
that has been in existence since the 1980s when it was developed by the
Fair Isaac Corporation. The three prominent credit bureaus (TransUnion,
Experian, and Equifax) all worked with Fair Isaac to come up with the
FICO algorithm.

Your credit score may be any number from 300 to 850. The average
American falls at about 690, which is deemed relatively good credit.
However, while this score should secure you a loan, it will not get you
the very best interest rates on loan. In fact, 300-640 = Bad Credit,
641-680 = Fair Credit, 681-720 = Good Credit, and 721-850 = Excellent
Credit. Excellent credit should be the aim.

Following is the credit score breakdown:

Payment History

The biggest chunk of your score (35%) is derived from your payment
history. This score is influenced by how well (or not) you pay your
bills on time, how many have been sent to collection agencies,
bankruptcies, tax liens, etc. Keep in mind that missing a payment is
worse than making a late payment and that being late or especially
missing a mortgage payment is a bigger blow to your credit score than
missing a credit card or utility payment.

Usage Ratio

The amount of debt you have (compared to the amount of credit you
have not used) accounts for 30 percent of your score. Try not to max
your credit cards out. In fact, it is recommended that you only use 25
to 50 of the credit that is available to you. A way to balance this out
is to obtain more lines of credit and not use them. However, you do not
want to apply for a bunch of credit cards all at once as this is marked
against you. If your credit is in good standing, apply for a reputable
card every six months or so and save it for a rainy day.

Length of Credit History

Fifteen percent of your credit score is based on how long you’ve
established credit. This is common sense. The longer your credit
history, the better your overall score will be. More data about your
past leads to a more accurate prediction of your future credit
worthiness.

Credit Mix

Having several types of credit will actually boost your score if they
are managed well. This counts for 10 percent of the overall rating.

New Credit

As mentioned earlier, opening new credit accounts all at once will
negatively affect your score in the short term. It’s also important that
you are aware that your score can be lowered for too many “hard
inquiries” about your status. A “hard inquiry” is one that you have
authorized a lender to perform. If you are inquiring about your own
score, this will not count against you.

Understanding what goes into the credit score breakdown is the first
step in improving your score and what will allow you to design your
score and begin you on the journey to financial freedom.